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1.0 INTRODUCTION
A reading habit is an essential life skill. Reading not only increases our knowledge,
but it also builds maturity and character, sharpens our thinking, and widens our
awareness in social, economic, political, and environmental issues.
Although the government has launched several reading campaigns (the recent one is
the Mari Membaca 1Malaysia, launched in March 2010) to increase the reading habit
among Malaysians throughout the years, obviously these campaigns aren’t quite
working as desired.
Nonetheless, the last National Literacy Survey carried out in 2005 reported that
Malaysians still read an average of two books a year. In short, there had been no
improvement. The last survey also reported that Malaysians read increasingly less as
they grew older. By the age of 50, for example, only 20% of Malaysians would still
continue to read books, a drop from 40% (a figure which is already pathetic) from
those in the mid-twenties to thirties age group.
In an interesting paper by him in 2000, he surveyed that 80.1% of university students
are “reluctant” readers in English-language materials. In other words, 80.1%
university students read because they have to. Children who experience success in
literacy learning tasks that are appropriate, interesting and challenging are more
likely to be motivated in their learning (Pressley, 2002). The teacher’s role in
supporting this motivation includes facilitating learning that is within a child’s reach,
providing scaffolding to support learning and monitoring students who are having
difficulties. It also involves fostering the development of oral language,
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comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and writing skills; providing a range of
interesting books; and, as much as possible, allowing children choice in their reading
and writing (Pressley, 2002). This is in contrast with Khalid (2013) who noted that
the greatest challenge is in contributing towards reading culture and also towards the
appreciation of books.
The United Nation in 2013 states that Malaysia had one of the lowest literacy rates
(93.1%) compared to her other Southeast Asian neighbours, like Singapore (95.9%),
Thailand (93.5%), and the Philippines (95.4%), respectively.
To increase fluency, this study will shed into lights a useful strategy of word phonic
game. According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), “The principal way that teachers
can influence learners’ motivation is by making the classroom a supportive
environment in which students are stimulated, (and) engaged in (the) activities”
(p.163). Teachers should choose games that suitable to the students’ level and
interests so that the students will success to complete the task given to them. These
phonemes are based on the classroom observations and instructional interactions
with the participants. These phonemes are /a/ and /u/. This study will also attempt to
investigate the effect of phoneme blending strategy among a group of Year 2 pupils
of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli in improving their reading fluency.
1.1 Reflection on Past Teaching Experience
In my 10 years of teaching, I have dealt with students with different range of learning
proficiency and interests. I have been using many techniques and approaches as
suggested to me by my friends and colleagues in order to tackle the low proficiency
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students in my class. I am teaching the year 2 Bestari.. My concern is for the low
proficiencies. They have problems in acquiring all the four skills.
I have been observing the progress of the students during the teaching and learning
process and also out of the classroom. I found out that they rarely read and are not
interested in reading. They had low motivation to follow activities that involved
texts. They tend to mime while reading and parrot out words that they heard from
their friends. When I carry out reading activities, they showed less interest to the
reading passage and liked to play with things and sometimes disturbing their friends
during the reading session. I am aware that it is due to their difficulties in
pronouncing the words correctly and identifying the sounds produced according to
the phonemes. It has come to my attention that if I did not do something to help these
pupils, they will continue being left behind their friends. With that concern, I decided
to carry out my action research.
When asked to read, the pupils easily mispronounce the words with the associated
phonemes. For example, they mispronounce the phoneme /u/ in the word ‘sun’ as |
suːn | although the correct pronunciation is | sʌn |. Concerning the phoneme /a/, they
mispronounce the word ‘cat’ as | cət | instead of | kæt |. Here are more examples of
words that were mispronounce by the pupils.
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Word Correct pronunciation Pupils’ pronunciation
can | cən | | cæn |.
man | mən | | mæn |.
hat | hət | | hæt |.
sand | sənd | | sænd |.
bug | buːg | | bʌg |
hut | huːt | | hʌt |
cut | cuːt | | kʌt |
run | ruːn | | rʌn |
Table 1 : list of words mispronounced by the Year 2 pupils
Based on the problems I have identified, I tried a few approach to help the pupils
pronounce the phonemes correctly but the problem seemed to be repeated by the
pupils. Later, I decided to try using games I called Phonic Race because I believe that
I have to improve the pupils’ foundation using phonic approach. I believe when I
integrate phonic approach and game as a teaching strategy, it will bring better impact
towards the pupils’ acquisition.
1.2 Theoritical Framework
Bottom-up teaching strategies help pupils learn letter recognition while developing
print awareness. As they begin to recognize and identify letters, teachers begin
developing pupils' phonetic awareness. Pupils then learn to pronounce common letter
combinations, such as “th” or “st.” They learn to recognize similar words with
differing pronunciations, such as "baked" and "naked,” and words with multiple
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spellings or exceptions to common phonetic rules, according to Dr. Jon Reyhner of
Northern Arizona University. Bottom-up theories hypothesize that learning to read
progresses from children learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding
whole text (meaning). Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the
reading process say that the reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an
examination of each piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make a
picture. Two bottom-up theories of the reading process remain popular even today:
One Second of Reading by Gough (1972) and A Theory of Automatic Information
Processing by LaBerge and Samuels (1974). Gough’s (1972) One Second of Reading
model described reading as a sequential or serial mental process. Readers, according
to Gough, begin by translating the parts of written language (letters) into speech
sounds, then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece the
words together to arrive at an understanding of the author’s written message.
According to Nunan (1991), reading is basically a matter of decoding a series of
written symbols into their aural equivalents in the quest for making sense of the text.
According to this theory, pupils should master the basic skills of phonics and
phonemic awareness when learning to read. This means pupils first learn letter names
and sounds and then are taught to decode simple words by sounding them out one
letter at a time. Beginning reading books include many words pupils are able to
sound out. For example, Pat sat on the mat. Instructional time is devoted to practicing
individual skills which build on each other.
Reading at the first-grade level encourages phonemic awareness, or the
understanding of the sounds and syllables that make up words. A child will also
develop phonological awareness, or the knowledge of how syllables sound when put
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together into words. Using these skills together, a first-grader can sound out words
using individual syllables and break words down into their component syllables. He
will apply this knowledge to identifying new words.
Anderson, N. J. (2008), Beginning-level readers should be exposed to a
strong bottom-up component. This is perhaps the greatest weakness in the
development of many reading syllabi. Little or no attention is given to the explicit
instruction of bottom-up reading. A guideline that you could follow in preparing a
syllabus for beginning level readers is allocating 50 percent of your syllabus to
teaching bottom-up skills, 30 percent to top-down skills, and 20 percent to interactive
skills. With a strong foundation in bottom-up skills, beginning-level readers will
become more-proficient readers more quickly.
According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically
inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based. To
Piaget, cognitive development was a progressive reorganization of mental processes
as a result of biological maturation and environmental experience. Children construct
an understanding of the world around them, then experience discrepancies between
what they already know and what they discover in their environment.
Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one’s whole body or
parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to
coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity as
related.
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Playing games is the nature of children. Playing activities are part of a child's world,
teaching and learning is more effective if the child's education curriculum is based on
playing. Through play games, children learn and understand the issues that are
happening around them in a happy and meaningful ways to them. Interactive
activities in playing games will give the students the opportunity to interact with
others. According to Erikson (1950) and Piaget (1980), experts in the field of child
development believed that playing games activities can stimulate brain function that
can foster the development of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development
of children. When they play, children interact with peers or adults through discussion
and question and answer. Children learn to communicate, interact and adapt to the
environment through playing games.
Wilson and Colmar (2008), pointed out that “ the overwhelming findings indicate
that direct and systematic instructions in phonics contributes more significantly to
children’s initial an ongoing literacy development than any alternate approach of
either unsystematic or no phonics.” In other words, proficient reading instruction
should consists of phonemic awareness, phonics, guided oral fluency, vocabulary and
reading comprehension.
Australian researcher Wright et al. (2011) early phonological skills particularly the
ability to recognise the phonemic structure of spoken words help children develop
knowledge of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules. Moreover literary research in the
United States has found that, phonemic awareness and letter knowledge were the two
best predictors of reading ability in the first two years of instruction. Therefore.
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Phonemic and phonic awareness build foundation skills that are predictive of future
reading success (Wilson & Colmar,2008)
In reference to prominent researches on pronunciation and strategies, this study aims
to investigate how phonic race strategy can be used to improve pronunciation among
Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli.
2.0 FOCUS OF INVESTIGATION
The following is the discussion of the underlying problem that leads to the study. The
problem is identified among Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP Ulu Penggeli pertaining to
developing their blending skills.
2.1 Problem Statement
When I observed my pupils during the teaching and learning process, I discovered a
number of factors that contributed to the lack of reading ability among the pupils.
The pupils cannot produce the sound of words although they are able to identify the
sound of the phonemes correctly. Based on the bottom up and kinaesthetic theory, I
want to create a joyful and meaningful leaning session for the low proficiency
students. At the end of the research, it is hope that the game will be a useful tool to
improve the students’ fluency.
From my observation, I have identified that the problem faced by the pupils were
with the pronunciation of words associated with the phoneme /a/ and /u/. When
asked to read, the pupils tend to pronounce both the phonemes according to the
Malay pronunciation. They mistakenly pronounce the phoneme /a/ as | ə | and the
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phoneme /u/ as | uː |. I can see that this happened because of the influence of their
mother tongue. This study will hopefully help the pupils to improve on their
pronunciation of both phonemes thus improving the level of their reading
confidence.
2.2 Preliminary Investigation
The preliminary investigation of this study started in June 2014. I noticed that all of
the pupils in Year 2 Bestari have difficulty in reading fluently, especially those with
low proficiency in the language skills.
Usually, whenever reading are conducted every Monday, they can participate but still
show confusion over the pronunciation of some words between English and Malay
pronunciation.
2.3 Analysis of Preliminary Investigation
Based on the preliminary investigation, my focus is to help them improving their
reading skill especially in the blending of phoneme /a/ and /uː/. When I conducted a
reading lesson, I noticed that the students have problems in pronouncing the words
with phoneme /a/ and /u/ accurately. This is due to the confusion of the sounds of the
phonemes in English and Malay pronunciation.
When in reading lessons, I noticed that when they read single syllable words from
the passage, some of the pupils managed to pronounce them correctly however some
of them especially the slow learners were still confused with the pronunciation. Thus,
when the pupils read the whole passage, the errors can still be heard clearly. There
were also cases in which the same pupils could read with correct pronunciation once,
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but when asked to read again, still making errors on the concerned phonemes. My
diagnosis revealed that in the while-reading stage, I noticed that their pronunciation
is influenced by their pronunciation in Malay.
2.4 Criteria of Selection
The phonic race is designed based on the same theory as to promote interest among
the pupils. The pupils are expected to engage more with the games so that I can
identify and address their weaknesses. This strategy can help the pupils to pronounce
the words better thus improving their fluency. This is supported by Gough (1972) in
the bottom up theories who suggested that learning to read progresses from children
learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding whole text (meaning).
I also chose phonic race strategy because of its interesting features and motivational
purpose. This blending strategy can be conducted during the lessons and does not
require a lengthy amount of time to be administered. Other than sustaining their
reading motivation, the use of in lesson will help to gain their attention and
motivation to learn.
Using phonic race strategy in the classroom can help the pupils to progress and will
eventually boost their interest to read. It will help them to sustain their reading
motivation and allows them to read with less pauses. Therefore, I believed that
phonic race is the best strategy to expose the target group towards discriminating
both phonemes thus improving their pronunciation.
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2.5 Definition of Terms
The definition specified here is the definition that has been manipulated for this
study. The operational functions of important terminologies are explained as below.
Phonic race
A reading strategy that aim to help improving the pupils’ pronunciation by
integrating the phoneme blending strategy and the use of game. It is expected to help
the pupils in pronouncing words by identifying the sound of the phonemes
individually and to boost the pupils’ motivation towards learning the language by
providing a fun learning environment as they learn.
Phonemes
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2011) defines the meaning of
phoneme is any one of the set of smallest units of speech in a language that
distinguish on word from another.
Phoneme Blending
Phoneme blending refers to the ability to identify a word when hearing parts of the
word (phonemes or syllables) in isolation. This is a very important step in the
development of literacy, as well as general language development.
3.0 OBJECTIVES/RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research objectives and the research questions of this study are as follow;
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3.1 Research Objectives
This study aims to:
1. Identify the most problematic phonemes among the Year 2 pupils of SK LKTP
Ulu Penggeli.
2. Examine the effectiveness of phonic race in developing phonetic awareness.
3. Examine the effectiveness of phonic race in improving pronunciation.
3.2 Research Questions
1. Which of the focus phoneme is the most problematic among Year 2 pupils?
2. Can phonic race develop phonetic awareness?
3. Can phonic race help to improve pronunciation?
4.0 TARGET GROUP/PARTICIPANTS
The target group of this study were 12 pupils of Year 2 Bestari in SK LKTP Ulu
Penggeli, Kluang. The class is of mix abilities students with different level of English
proficiencies. There is a total of twelve students in the class. Some are very bright
and some are very poor in their proficiency. There were 7 male pupils (58.33 %) and
5 female pupils (41.67%). All of these pupils were from FELDA community. All of
these pupils have been exposed to phonics method and were able to sound each
phonic correctly. There were 3 upper intermediate pupils and also 3 low intermediate
pupils in this classroom. The rest of the pupils were on average. This class was
chosen to be the target group because of their ability to recognize phonics but still
having pauses in their pronunciation. They tend to stop reading words they are not
confident with and wait for teacher’s or their friends’ assistant or interference. Others
simply pronounce the words as they like. They always have problems pronouncing
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words with the /a/ and /u/ sound. They got mixed up with the Malay pronunciation
when they read the passages used in the lesson. When corrected a few times, the
pupils became intimidated to read and some read with high cautions. These affect
their motivation and interest to read hence developing obstacles in their reading
fluency. Therefore, by introducing the phonic race it is hoped that their pronunciation
can be improved.
In their school based assessments for Year 2, 2 pupils achieved Band 5 (16.67 %), 8
pupil achieved Band 4 (66.67 %), 2 pupils achieved Band 3 (16.67%) For their mid-
term examination results, 4 pupils scored B (33.33 %), 6 pupils scored C (50 %) and
2 pupils scored D (16.67 %). Table 2 below describes the participants’ profiles
clearly.
No Profile Description Num.of
Participants
Percentage
1 Gender Male 7 58.33
Female 5 41.67
2 Assessment Band 5 2 16.67
Band 4 8 66.67
Band 3 2 16.67
3 Mid-term Examination B 4 33.33
C 6 50
D 2 16.67
Table 2: Participants’ Profiles
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5.0 ACTION
This action research was based on Lewin (1946) and Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)
research models. There are five steps in this model. Below is the illustration of the
research model.
Figure 1: A Conceptualization of the action research cycle.
Procedure of Action
As stated above, this study was based on an adaptation of Lewin (1946) and Kemmis
and McTaggart (1988) research models. According to Goh (2012), this model is
especially suited to integrating action with the classroom teacher’s practice. The
study was carried for one research cycle and focussed on reading skill. This research
model was selected because it consists of steps that clearly illustrate the study
framework in terms of justifying how word chunking strategy can be used to increase
reading fluency in the classroom. Figure 2 below is the research model that was used
in this study
Step 4: Data
collection and
analysis
Step 2: Plan of
action
Step 3:
Implementthe
action
Step 1: Determine
research focus
Step 5:
Reflection on
the
effectiveness of
action
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Figure 2: The Adaptation of the Research Model
Step1:
IdentifyingFocus:
1. To increase pronunciation
throughphonicblendingstrategy
2. To improve pupils’
pronunciationof words
associatedwithphoneme/a/
and /u/.
Step2:
Planof action:
1. PhonicMethod – to refreshthe pupils.
2. Exposure to phonicrace for about30 minutesinpre-reading
and while readingstages.
3. Using adaptedpassages,teacherhighlightsthe words
associatedwithphonemes/a/and/u/and the pupilswill blend
themto ease
Step3:
Implementingthe action
1. 2 hours or 2 days of class
interaction.Anhourdaily.
2. Checklistsinaccordance to the
readingpassage are preparedto
monitorprogress.
Step4:
Data collectionandanalysis
1. Checklist
2. Observation
3. Semi-structuredinterview
Step5:
Reflectiononthe effectivenessof
action
1. Conductinganalysisbasedonthe
data gathered:
i.Observations
ii.Checklist
iii.Semi-structuredinterview
2. Suggestionsforimprovement
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Step 1 of this study was derived based on the observation by the teacher on the
pronunciation of pupils’ of words with /a/ and /u/. As soon as the problem had been
identified, a strategy of how to help them increasing their pronunciation was adapted
so that the suitability and focus would match that of the pupils’ current
pronunciation.
In step 2, the pupils’ phonic skills were refreshed to show the differences between
the phonemes and how to play the phonemes race game. When the pupils were able
to differentiate these two phonemes, they can blend the sounds of the words
correctly, thus improving their pronunciation. In this step, the pupils were exposed to
the words in with /a/ and /u/ sound in their reading passage. Different reading
passages have been used for every interaction so that they can have more practice on
blending the phonemes. In every passage used, the focus words have been
highlighted and pupils practiced sounding the words in isolation. After 10-15
minutes of practice, then only they read the passage. At this point, I observed their
progress through checklists and audio records.
The implementation of the process involved in Step 2 was carried in Step 3. The
study was conducted in two days’ time involving 2 hours of interactions. The
intervention processes were carried during English language period daily. Lesson
plans were prepared according to the Year 2 KSSR syllabus.
In Step 4, the data collected were analysed to evaluate the effectiveness of word
phonic race strategy in helping the pupils to pronounce the phonemes. The data
collection methods are explained in Figure 2 above. Here, the discussion was to
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answer the research questions to find out whether the word phonic race strategy
achieved the research objectives that have been set earlier.
Step 5 was the reflection of the study. Based on the data analysis, I had suggested
improvement for further research and what improvement should be given more
thoughts to ensure the effective of the phonic race strategy in improving the pupils’
pronunciation.
5.1 Intervention
The focus of intervention was to improve pronunciation through word phonic
strategy. As this strategy was using bottom-up reading theory, the process of
intervention started from the lowest unit, which is the phonics level that makes the
pronunciation of a word. The participants in this study have already been exposed to
reading through phonics method since Year 1 but at some point during reading, they
would come up with errors in pronunciation of words when it comes to blending the
phonemes together. The purpose of the intervention was to teach them blending by
focusing on the phoneme /a/ and /u/.
The intervention had been given during the pre-reading stage for about 10 – 15
minutes of some words contained in the reading text. At this stage, the pupils were
taught on how to play the games using the phonic race game. The board will have
few steps where every turn will give different phoneme card. The reason why I chose
games is because game is a helpful tool to boost pupils’ motivation. Games introduce
an element of competition into language-building activities. This provides valuable
impetus to a purposeful use of language (Prasad 2003) this is supported by Huyen
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and Nga (2003), students said that they liked the relaxed atmosphere, the
competitiveness, and the motivation that games brought to the classroom
Each pupil will take turns in their group to draw the dice. The respective pupil will
pick a card and blend the phonemes on the card. The game will help the pupils to
remember the pronunciation of the word thus enable them to pronounce faster
through phoneme blending.
Before the pre-reading stage, the pupils are divided into teams. The teacher then
paste the board game on the board. The teacher will asks the pupils to draw the dice
and each member of the group who can blend the phonemes and pronounce the word
correctly will gain one point for his or her team. If the member fail to do so, the
group will not only get zero point, but they will also remain in the same spot.
Before moving to the while-reading stage, the teacher flashes a few word cards
containing words with the targeted phonemes. The teacher will asks the pupils to say
aloud the words thus allowing the teacher to observe their pronunciation of the
words. After having pronunciation game for about 10 minutes, the pupils then given
a reading text. The teacher will carefully select texts with frequent use of words with
the targeted phonemes. During the reading process, the teacher will pay attention to
the pupils’ pronunciation of the targeted phonemes. The teacher will give them the
chance to read the passage on their own to see how well they can pronounce the
words. Then, the teacher will read aloud the passage to the pupils.
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Before the program started, I have given the pupils checklist for reading. I have listed
a number of words with the targeted phonemes and asked them to pronounce them.
During the reading process, the teacher will use a checklist to check on their
pronunciation. The teacher can use the checklist to monitor the pupils’ performance
throughout the research. By the end of the study, I observed the pupils’ progress with
a checklist. Using the same words in the test, I can identified how far they had
progress.
The words and the passage that were used in this study were based on their textbook.
The research was conducted in 2 days. There are 2 passages used in the research.
Each one was based on the Topic 2; Do the Right Thing. In every passage, the focus
words were highlighted. These words contain /a/ and / u/. I used the passages for
reading (Day 1) and also for writing (Day 1).
5.2 Data Gathering Methods
According to Rouse (2007), data collection is a systematic approach to gathering
information from a variety of sources to get a complete and accurate picture of an
area of interest. A formal data collection process is necessary as it ensures that data
gathered are both defined and accurate and that subsequent decisions based on
arguments embodied in the findings are valid. In this study, there were two methods
involved in collecting the data. The first method was observation notes and checklist.
The second method was semi-structured interview session. The process provides
both a baseline from which to measure and in certain cases a target on what to
improve.
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The first method used in the study was observation. There were two instruments used
in this method. They were observation notes and checklist; see appendix 2 for
observation notes and appendix 3 for checklist. In this study, the observations were
conducted during interactions especially during pre-reading and while reading stages.
In pre-reading stage, the observations were carried out during the intervention
process, where the pupils play the phonics race. The pupils were tested individually
on how to blend phonemes together to make word so that they can keep practising in
the next reading classes. This step is in line with Bilash (2009) who noted that
observation provide a chance to re-evaluate the classroom from a different
perspective.
During the while reading stage, the observation notes were made to evaluate the
effectiveness of the phonics race. If they fail to blend the phonemes correctly, the
pupils will cost their team to lose some points. They became more alert to the
formation of words as to make sure their team won the race. This step is also in line
with Bilash (2009) who viewed observation as the creation of a professional learning
community with the best interests of the students in mind.
Checklists were used together with the observations in the while reading stage to
evaluate the pupils’ pronunciation of the focus words. A different checklist was used
for every passage so that pupils can practice blending as many words as possible.
The highlighted words from the phoneme race were listed in the checklists. When the
pupils managed to pronounce the words correctly, the column in the checklist table
will be ticked. At the end, their score were counted respectively so that analysis of
the phoneme race can be carried. Marino (2013) states that using checklist in the
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classroom can help pupils to keep on task. It helped me to keep the objectives
without losing focus. This is further supported by Rowlands’ study (as cited in
Marino, 2013) who noted that checklist is an accurate method of assessing
performance.
Audio recordings were also used in the interventions. Audio recordings were used to
record the pupils’ reading both individually and by group. The recordings were used
to assist my observation should I missed any important key points in the pupils’
reading progress. According to Sapsford and Jupp (2003), audio recording provides
more complete and accurate record and can be used to supplement or check data
records produced by the researcher. It is also noted that audio recording provides a
more systematic data gathering as it helps the researcher to add more fields to the
observation notes made in the classroom.
The second method that was used in this study is the semi-structured interview.
There were two instruments used in this method. They were the interview questions
and audio recordings; see appendix 4 for interview questions. The interview sessions
were carried at the end of each week. Four pupils were interviewed to assess their
opinions and what do they think about the strategy. One low intermediate pupil and
one upper intermediate pupil were interviewed by the end of each week to assess
their opinion and to evaluate the effectiveness of phonic race strategy. These four
pupils were chosen to represent the whole participants of this study. The semi-
structured interview was chosen because it helped me to understand the pupils’
opinion better and more relevant questions pertaining to the effectiveness of phonic
race strategy can be asked without a rigid scheme. This statement is supported by
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Mason (2013) who states that semi-structured interview is flexible and has fluid
structure. Their responses form the interview sessions were then transcribed to assist
analysis in answering the research questions.
Audio recordings were also used in this method to record the participants’ responses.
The advantages of using audio recordings are that I can play the interview sessions
repeatedly to get clarity from their responses and also to use them for quotes to
support my findings. This is supported by Kalpesh (2013) who noted that audio
recording gives an accurate summary and provides reference for the researcher.
6.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
As this study used observation notes checklists and interview, qualitative method is
used to elaborate on the findings. This is supported by Mc Roy (n.d) who noted
qualitative research is concerned with non-statistical methods of inquiry and analysis
of social phenomena.
This statement above is further supported by Carolyn Nicholls (2011) noted that
qualitative research can convey a richness and intensity of detail in a way that
quantitative research cannot. She also added that qualitative research methods allow
for much more detailed investigation of issues - answering questions of meaning,
who is affected (by the issue) why, what factors are involved, do individuals react or
respond differently to each other.
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6.1 Observation
Fot the research purpose, I have conducted two observation methods. The first one
was done with observation notes. The second method was the checklists. The pupils’
changes in behaviour and atttitude towards the lesson were recorded in my notes.
The notes were used to reveal the improvement of the pupils after the intervention
has been conducted. The distinct results showed that the pupils’ pronounciation have
been enhanced by the phonic race. The observation also showed that the pupils were
highly motivated during the lessons.
From the observation notes and the checklists results, I found out that the participants
enjoyed the phonic race very much. They actively participated in the activity
conducted during the lesson. What suprised me was that the pupils were able to give
suitable response regardless their differences in proficiency level. However, P3, P4
and P6 still unable to pronounce all the words in the list correctly after the first
intervention.
On further analysis, the improvement was seen. 6 participants was identified to have
problems in pronouncing words with phoneme /a/ and /u/. By the second
intervention, the number decrease to 4 participants. The number continue to decrease
by the third intervention where there were only 2 participants left with the problem.
At the end of the research, there was only 1 participant who cannot pronounce the
words in the list correctly.
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Nevertheless, the pupils picked up during the practice stage. By the third observation,
the result showed that P3, P4 and P6 were still unable to blend the phonemes
correctly. However, by the last intervention, P3 and P4 were able to blend the
phonemes correctly thus enable them to pronounce the words in the list correctly.
Based on the observation, P3, P4 and P6 have improved their pronunciation.
However, P6 still did not managed to blend the phonemes correctly till the end of the
research. This is due to his limited attention to the lesson and also because he was
easily distracted during the lesson.
6.2 Interview
The interview was done on the final day of the observation. It involved 5 pupils of
different proficiency levels. Among the 5 pupils, 2 are of excellent, 2 are of average
and 1 of low proficiency learner. The interview was conducted by me myself. The
purpose of the interview was to get in depth understanding of the participants’
perception of the phonic race as used in the intervention.
There were 5 items used in the interview (refer to appendix xxx). There were 3
themes used in designing the items. Two of the items were used to find out the pupils
perception towards the phonic race whether it is interesting and able to create fun
learning environment as it was aimed for. Another two items were used to find out if
the phonic race could boost the pupils’ motivation to learn the English language. The
last item was to look at the effectiveness of using phonic race to improve their
pronunciation.
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The first theme was on the pupils’ interest. When asked the question 1, P2
responded, “I like phonic race. It is fun”. P6 responded “Best” when asked the same
question. When asked the second question, P12 said “I want to play phonic race
again”. P5 replied “I want to play again”. The answers indicated that the participants
enjoyed the phonic race strategy and would like to have the phonic race again in the
future.
The second theme was motivation. Two questions were asked for the purpose. P2
responded to question 3 saying “Yes. I can read easier now”. P7 said “Yes. It is
easy”. P6 however responded “I can read a little”. Question 4 got positive responds
from the participants. P7 responded “Yes. I can read the words easily”. P5 replied
“Reading is easier now”. P6 only replied “Yes, easy”. Based on their answers, it can
be concluded that phonic race helped to boost the pupils’ motivation to learn English.
The final question was to find out whether the phonic race help to improve the
pupils’ reading. P7 answered “Yes”. When asked to clarify his answer, he said “I can
read faster now”. P12 also agree with P7. She responded “I can read faster”. P6
however responded “Yes, a little”. I could say that the responses were off positive so
they indicate that the pupils agreed that phonic race helped them to read better.
7.0 FINDINGS
The findings of this action research explained the relationship between the research
objectives, research questions and the data collection methods. The findings are
discussed according to the research questions.
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7.1 Which of the focus phoneme is the most problematic among Year 2 pupils?
As MacKay (1967) pointed out, a pronunciation error may be due to a transfer from
the native language; an analogy with something correctly learned in the foreign
language; a wild guess, vagueness in remembering the right form; or general lack of
accuracy and language skill. Of all these, transfer from the native language or
interference is the most common one. Most of the errors made are due to the
difference in sound systems and due to the misinterpretation of spelling symbols.
This is the main factor that contributed to the mispronunciation of the phoneme /a/
and /u/. Based on the observation, both phonemes contributed equally to their
pronunciation problem thus influence their reading. According to the checklist, P3,
P4 and P6 fail to pronounce the words in the list correctly up until observation 3 and
P6 remain with the same result until the final observation. (refer to Appendix xxx).
Based on the observation checklists, the most problematic phoneme for Year 2 pupils
is the phoneme /u/. Observation 1 showed that P1, P3, P4, P6, P8 and P11
mispronounce the words ‘lamp’, ‘can’, ‘bun’, ‘hut’ and ‘cut’. Up until observation
3, P4 and P6 still have problems to pronounce all the words in the checklist correctly
and the result shows that P4 and P6 could not pronounce the words ‘camp’, ‘shut’,
‘hung’ and ‘jump’ correctly. Another factor that could possibly contributed to the
result was the use of digraph ‘sh’, ‘ng’ and ‘mp’. They may add difficulty to the
pupils to pronounce the words correctly.
7.2 Can phonic race develop phonetic awareness?
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual
sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to
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become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that
words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (the smallest parts of sound in a
spoken word that make a difference in a word's meaning).
Based on the observation notes and checklist, the pupils showed positive
improvement in their pronunciation of words associated with the phoneme /a/ and
/u/. The final observation showed that 11 out of 12 pupils were able to pronounce the
words in the list correctly. The positive improvement signified a raise in the pupils’
awareness towards the respective phonemes. Based on that, the phoneme race is
proven to help develop phonetic awareness among the Year 2 pupils because pupils
can identify the phonemes thus enabled them to pronounce the words correctly.
7.3 Can phonic race help to improve pronunciation?
The use of phonic race helped the pupils to improve their pronunciation. The pupils
were able to pronounce the words correctly as they can discriminate the sound of
each phoneme. This helped them to blend the sound of phonemes in the words in
order to say the words. This is supported by Colmar, 2008 who stated that phonemic
and phonic awareness build foundation skills that are predictive of future reading
success.
Concluding paragraph
Based on the discussions above, the phonic race strategy has been proven as an
effective reading strategy that can improve the pupils’ pronunciation. Based on the 5
items used in the interview, all 5 pupils stated that the use of phonic race was
something fun and interesting. They also showed interest in the phonic race by their
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active participation during the intervention and during the lesson. There were
positive signs that proved that the phonic race has increased their motivation for
learning. Compared to the previous approach, this time, every pupil involved
themselves actively in the learning activity. Pupils became more active and
motivated to learn as they always love game and competition. So, when the teacher
integrated the play element in the lesson, he opened the door for the pupils to learn in
a meaningful way. Piaget (1980), experts in the field of child development believed
that playing games activities can stimulate brain function that can foster the
development of cognitive, social, emotional and physical development of children.
When they play, children interact with peers or adults through discussion and
question and answer. Children learn to communicate, interact and adapt to the
environment through playing games.
8.0 SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The phonic race that was conducted has brought difference to the reading fluency of
the pupils of Year 2 Bestari as they were able to pronounce the phonemes correctly.
This has improved their level of confidence in reading words especially words with
single syllable as they are now able to blend the phonemes into words. Despite the
fact that it provides fun learning that help engaging them in learning, there were still
some obvious weaknesses that I have discovered in the intervention. The first
weakness was the lack of classroom control during the intervention. Since the game
was played in groups, some pupils got too excited and forgot to follow the rules of
playing the game. This has caused the class to be noisy during the intervention and
could deliver bad impression from the other teachers. The activity during the
intervention was monopolised by high proficiency pupils and the low proficiency
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pupils got less chances to participate. Another problem that I could see was the low
proficiency pupils tend to be shy and became intimidated to fully participate in the
game. I would suggest that in future, teacher could explain the rules and remind the
pupils the rules along the activity so the teacher could avoid the pupils from showing
misbehaviour conduct. It is also to allow active participation from every pupil
especially the low ability who are usually got left behind due to their in confidence.
